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Customer Reviews of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown

the Valentine's specials!
This DVD release has three classic Peanuts cartoon specials on it. All three were Valentine's Day related episodes. The episodes are "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown" (1975), "You're in Love, Charlie Brown" (1967), and "It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown" (1977). While the episodes vary in overall quality, it is always nice to have a collection of the Peanuts shorts.

First on the disc is "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown", and this may be the one that most people are familiar with. It is almost Valentine's Day and everyone is looking forward to the day. Charlie Brown brings a briefcase with him to school because he believes this is the day that he will get mounds of valentine's cards. Linus buys a big box of chocolates for his teacher and hopes to give it to her. Sally is waiting for a valentine from Linus. Lucy wants one from Schroeder (who would presumably want one from Beethoven). The theme of Peanuts, unfortunately is unrequited love, so nobody gets what they want. Charlie Brown is so desperate for a valentine that he is willing to take a used card with the original name scratched out because Patty felt bad when nobody gave poor Charlie Brown a valentine. This is the best episode of the disc.

The second episode is "You're in Love, Charlie Brown". This episode takes Charlie Brown on the last two days of the school year and he is trying to work up his nerve to talk to the Little Red Haired Girl. He talks to Linus and complains but he never can quite work up his nerve. Once again, we have the sadness of Charlie Brown not achieving his dreams, but the episode ends on a high note. When Charlie Brown finally decides that he is going to talk to the Little Red Haired Girl, he misses the opportunity in the press of students as school ends. But he finds a note in his hand when the students all pass that says "I Like You, signed, The Little Red Haired Girl". This one has its moments (Charlie Brown eating a peanut butter sandwich in disappointment is one), but overall it isn't quite as good as the first.

The last episode is "It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown". This is the strangest episode of the three. The episode opens with a Homecoming Parade. Charlie Brown and Linus are on one of the floats and Charlie Brown asks what exactly they are doing as an escort. Linus tells him that their role is to escort the homecoming court at the dance and that Charlie Brown's date is the Queen. Charlie Brown looks over and realizes that the Homecoming Queen is the Little Red Haired Girl. Linus tells him that her name is Heather. Before the dance, though, is the Homecoming Football game. This takes up a rather large portion of the episode, and Charlie Brown is the kicker. Naturally Lucy repeatedly pulls the ball away before he can kick it (the old Peanuts gag). Every time Charlie Brown gets close to kicking it, the ball is pulled away and he lands flat on his back. Amazingly enough, every time this happens the entire team gets mad at Charlie Brown for missing the ball while ignoring the fact that Lucy clearly pulled the ball away in an important game! We come to the dance where Charlie Brown gets to lay the ceremonial first kiss on the cheek of the Queen and Charlie Brown's dreams come true. It is a nice sweet ending (especially the conversation with Linus at the very end) to a weird episode.

This DVD is a nice chance to own three Valentine's specials on one disc. While I found these enjoyable, there is nothing like the magic of the first Christmas special here. Decent episodes, but nothing spectacular. Still, they are Peanuts and that is always a good thing.

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A Pure Classic
This one's a no-brainer: it's a Peanuts holiday special so of course it's good. This one even has some good dramatic tension near the end between Schroeder and the girls who always pick on Charlie Brown that brings out all the pathos of Peanuts, and the way Charlie Brown cuts through the conflict you can't help but feel sorry for him. I'm docking this DVD release one star because it probably should've included the more recent Peanuts Valentine special that I believe originally aired in 2002, but now it may never be seen on any official release.

UPDATE: The second Valentine special does have it's own DVD now: "A Charlie Brown Valentine."

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Traditional Seasonal Fun with the Peanuts gang
This is fun. The best Peanuts cartoon by far is Charlie Brown's Christmas, but this is probably a close second. All the gang are here, Snoopy, Franklin, Pig-Pen, Schroeder, Lucy, Linus, Sally, and of course good ol' Charlie Brown.

The story will be familiar to many youngsters. St. Valentine's Day has come round again and there is nothing in the post box for poor old Charlie Brown. No matter how many times he jumps up to that box, reaches inside, checks and re-checks, there is nothing in there for him. But the story does have a happy ending, and there is fun a-plenty along the way. Part of the charm of these stories is the way they're animated simply and with a laid back, complementary musical score. The children who provide the voices are all well cast and the action never flags.

The DVD presentation is minimal. The film is not remastered, and needs some dirt and scratches cleaned as well as the (mono) soundtrack. There are NO special features, but the Studio has given us two supporting cartoons, neither of which are quite as good as Be My Valentine. Neither the voices nor animation quite hit the mark, but they're reasonably pleasant and justify the cost of a DVD more than if just one thirty minute animation had been included